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HM Imperial Army
"Given the Empire's disposition to the use of numerical superiority and industrial production in void warfare; we expected to see this also be reflected in their field armies also, this is true. But not in the way we expected it" '- General Aspinacha -' The Imperial Army "I vow to thee, my country, all earthly things above, Entire and whole and perfect, the service of my love" The Imperial Army is a mixture of large infantry brigades and mechanised soldiers, mixing in some specialised tanks, motorised infantry and even actual naval vessels for tactical variation. "The love that asks no question, the love that stands the test, That lays upon the altar the dearest and the best" Overall the military is a well equip fighting force; using a mixture of old and new tactics, not only do they have combined arms but combined doctrines. What is meant by this is that the Imperial Army has merged extremely old and long dead battle strategies with modern technology and techniques. '' '' "The love that never falters, the love that pays the price, The love that makes undaunted the final sacrifice" Recruitment The Empire distils great patriotic fervour within its citizens and relies on this to rake in large masses of voluntary recruits during peacetime and to quell dissatisfaction of forced conscription in war-time. "I heard my country calling, away across the sea, Across the waste of waters, she calls and calls to me" During peacetime the Empire still seeks to expand its power and the military is a direct apparatus of said power; new recruits are heavily drilled and turned into well disciplined fighting forces and they are always ready to be mobilised for engagement. The Empire is not fundamentally ignorant though, it realises that an ever expanding army is not necessarily good for the economy, so during peacetime the armies are also trained in engineering, construction and farming; when the army gets too large many soldiers are sent to set up a new self-sustaining colony, using their constructive and a substantial amount of funding these soldiers can settle asteroids or barren worlds and become economic contributors rather than drains. "Her sword is girded at her side, her helmet on her head, And around her feet are lying the dying and the dead" In wartime the Empire shifts into full gear, the cities become rife with public speakers and propaganda posters, it is unknown how effective it is as the Commonwealth does not have access to any information that deep; all the information you see in fact is gathered from the first preliminary intelligence reports made by spies, psionics and the great array. To have done it for so long though means it must have some effect but not enough to stave off conscription. By the time the armed forces are ready it is guesstimated that between the 'home-guard' and the invasive forces there are roughly 3 billion soldiers. '' '' "I hear the noise of battle, the thunder of her guns; I haste to thee, my mother, a son among thy sons" 3 Billion is an extraordinary amount, it appears that the Empire truly believes in the strength of its industry and seems to hold little regard for human life. How does the Empire possibly wield such large armies you ask? "And there's another country, I've heard of long ago, Most dear to them that love her, most great to them that know" The answer, in part, lies in the lyrics to this song... "We may not count her armies, we may not see her Queen; Her fortress is a faithful heart, her pride is suffering" The Empire calls upon its troops in full knowledge that they will face great peril, and the soldiers seem to know it to, it is not simply the fact that they go to war but how the Empire wages it. "And soul by soul and silently her shining bounds increase" For the Empire wages war like no other; they do not use fancy or ornate military tactics or strategy, they do not rely on intangible theorem or grand warriors of great size. They instead rely on the strength of their arms... as many as they can muster; giving rise to an era of warfare long thought gone "And her ways are ways of gentleness..." "and all her paths are '''peace'"'' Hierarchy, Rank & Army Structure The organization of the 'Rank & File' within the military is a remodeled version of the former 'British Empire' of Earth. Leaders of the army are often from noble families who have a militarist background. (These families study warfare and so are not entirely assigned rank without merit) * The Empress: ''The Eternal Empress commands all.'' * The 'Lord' Regent: ''The Eternal Empress cannot do it alone.'' * Field Marshal: '''Field Marshal has been the highest rank of the Imperial Army since old Earth days, 1736, and remains a prestigious position. Contrary to the Sovereign Armada their can be more than one person to hold the top rank. This is because the army is a much larger organisation than the Armada (the Armada is big relative to other nations but still numbers less than 1000 vessels; an army has more than 1000 mechs, let alone the possibly billions of infantry or millions of tanks). A Field Marshall is given a region of space from which he or she musters forces and then colludes with the other Field Marshalls to coordinate war efforts (very much alike the Byzantine Themata); however, due to the absolute dependence on the Armada to do literally anything, the Lord Admiral ultimately decides what planets to invade and then leaves it to the Marshalls to organise the invasion. It is also worth noting that in former history that a Monarch could also posses this rank. * '''Marshal: When the time to invade comes a single man or woman is pronounced 'Marshallof the planet'. The person assigned the task of conquering the planet is given the 'Mark of conquest'. This Marshall commands the entire invasion from the bridge of HMS Overlord, a vessel built for commanders to coordinate troops; though for the most part the Marshall remains here, he / she is expected to partake in battles on occasion.' ' * General: '''There are between 5 to 12 generals under a Marshall's command, depending on the size of the planet under conquest, these Generals share command of the Imperial Army assigned to the planet (Generals do not command their own armies as the Imperial Army is considered one single force, commanded by one leader, the Empress). It might seem like a flaw to divide command but these generals are often from the same family or allied ones; they all equally share the glory or shame of their actions and so work together rather than apart. Here is where the greatest shift occurs. The military seems to have shed a lot of ranks as a.i has slowly come to perform many logistic duties; Major Generals, Brigadier Generals, Colonels and Lieutenant Colonels have gone in favour of simple 'Clerks' who manage the movements and logistics of the army. * '''Commander: '''Responsible for managing a section of frontlines and macro strategy * '''Captain: '''The first rank that begins to appear amongst the soldiers; these soldiers are often found in mechs or tanks, firing upon the battlefield and coordinating infantry. * '''1st & 2nd Lieutenant: These people keep the ranks of infantry in line and ensure displine is maintained across the battlefield * Lower Ranks: '''From here on it becomes very standard. '''Army Structure "By God and by right, we rule these lands" * HM Armed Forces: '''The main branch of the Imperial army, encompassing the land forces of the Empire, the HM Armed Forces mainly include; infantry, tanks, mechs and artillery. This force has emphasis on the use of a mixture of tanks, mech and line infantry to achieve complete battlefield superiority. * '''HM Royal Talons: The air force; this branch includes the expected vessels, from fighters to bombers and troop transports. This branch also includes motorised infantry that is often the first boots on the ground in any operation, be it the initial invasion or beginning of an assault. * HM Royal Navy: As expected, this is the navy of the Imperial Army. Being ocean bound you might think they are usually confined to only operating on occupied planets, as they take time to build. But the navy is actually brought in from the Sovereign Armada using massive transport ships or via special engines that are attached to maritime vessels. Once in the ocean they serve as massive artillery platform with astonishing range. Stratagem, Doctrine & Tactics The army uses a surprisingly large variety of strategies; they have somehow taken the inflexible line formations of old time, combined them with modern technology and vehicles, and created one of the most oblique armies in the galaxy. Though the line infantry is the largest and most notable part of the army, the Imperial Army does make use of tanks, armoured vehicles, mechs, jets and some clones. (Addendum: The Redcoats do not literally form solid masses of line infantry like they did in the 17th & 18th century, rather the infantry moves sort of like a horizontal line across battlefields - still using cover, foliage, entrenchments etc - the above image of literal line infantry is from some of the first battles where the army was trialling the old 18th century tactics) Stratagems Stratagem - 'Attack by Stratagem' "To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting" Imperial army strategy is not actually to destroy the enemy but to shake their ability to battle and make surrender appear viable, thus the capture of the enemy is better than the destruction of the enemy. Due to the advanced technology available to all nations practically all conflicts have high causality rates on all sides, thus a mindset of complete annihilation of the opposition has grown to become the mainstay goal of most armies. The Empire twists this on its head and encourages the enemy to give up the fight, but first they must make the enemy realise that they would prefer to surrender rather than fight the Empire, to do this the enemy must feel the true pressure of the army. The Empire relies on the enemy riding to meet their initial invading armies in the field as they seek to smash the beachheads made by the Imperial Army (making beachheads onto a planet is a very high casualty operation and the enemy seek to force the enemy back to force them to repeat this high casualty event). The Imperial Army is well drilled to set up army formations rapidly and meet enemy armies with the full power of the landing forces. By breaking the initial counter attack the second stratagem comes in. Stratagem - Gentleman's agreement With the main strategy is to make their enemy surrender, it would not be much good if the Empire had a reputation for slaughtering prisoners or betraying foe whom had surrendered to them. So the Imperial Army makes it crystal clear that, even though xeno are scum, negotiations of surrender can be amicable; prisoners are fed and sheltered and are sure to be returned to the enemy in relatively good condition, this establishes that even foes can at least treat the other with decency. Diplomats will always make repeated offers of surrender throughout an entire campaign, both to small armies and to the overall leaders; accepting eventually becomes a very enticing prospect, especially when the Imperial Army offers a complete ceasefire and grace period to give time for the enemy to withdraw entirely off planet (as opposed to taking everyone prisoner; the enemy are offered the chance to fight another day, though the empire is partially just reluctant to bother with long term care for xeno prisoners) this doesn't really work if there are no planets left for the enemy to go back to. When leaders meet for negotiations the leaders of the Imperial Army act cordially and with 'respect'. They may be xeno but at least these ones have the honour of fighting like true warriors and any warrior of any species has at least some dignity, this tends to smooth over some talks as many xeno expect scolding remarks and boasts of human superiority. Over time the Empire has established a sort of arrangement of honour, or gentleman's agreement. When the deal is made that is that, no trickery or surprise ambush; the Empire of course should it ever lose a battle / war expects this in turn. Stratagem - The ever widening front Warfare is usually defined by invisible fronts and spars of smaller forces, eventually culminating in two forces devoting more and more forces to the critical battle. When the battle is finished one side gains a new foothold to springboard the next attack; this minimizes loses on what is a planet wide war, this stratagem employed by so many is severely flawed... if a massive force somehow smashes through one of the many fronts then all fronts collapse. This flaw is completely negated though by technology; to amass a force large enough to even hope of breaking through defenses it would left vulnerable to air attack and focused artillery barrages (which are extremely deadly with the technology used today) However the Empire possesses infantry so numerous that it is able to amass massive forces everywhere; spreading out from the beachheads in great numbers, the empire quickly creates extremely large front lines that stretch the enemy forces thinner and thinner. How does the Imperial Army not fall prey to artillery and air strike though... Grand shields. This will explained in greater detail in the Doctrine section. Stratagem - Our home away from home It was mentioned earlier that the army is trained in construction and farming, well this is essential to conquest. Based on the ancient roman empire the infantry is capable of making their own forts and housing, the constructions will not be anything near as close to the fortresses the engineer corps construct using work drones and mech but they suffice. The troops also create small farms and use GM crops that rapidly grow to feed and sustain the massive armies, these crops are more like substitutes as they lack the quantities of nutrients needed for fighting men but they serve to ensure that no-one starves if food shipments are delayed or destroyed. Again they are protected by great shields from barrages. Doctrines Doctrine - Combined Arms The line infantry is in itself equipped with a large variety of weaponry, but it is also just one aspect of the military; while line infantry serves as the bulk of the army they also use tanks, mechs, artillery and clones. These other machines accompany the infantry into battle and function as hard points to the wide formations. The line infantry is equipped with powerful semi automatic laser guns, known to them as Scarlet Rifles, that when used in enough numbers can overcome armoured tanks, long-range anti tank rockets, short range crimson plasma throwers and some small shield bearers. Tanks come in variations but have three main categories; brawler, line tank, battle tank. The brawler moves ahead of the infantry and skirmishes with the enemies forward units, these are often automated as they are not expected to last long but long enough to cover the infantries advance. The line tank sits with the infantry and could be considered the equivalent of canons, they're slow but pack a punch at mid-range and beyond that they serve as small artillery. The battle tank is essentially a normal tank that functions as most other nations' tanks do; mobile and flexible this tanks is used like most modern tanks are. Doctrine - The Great Barriers The Imperial army relies heavily on massive shield generators that create massive shields capable of covering massive areas; these shields stop large incoming fire like orbital ordinance or artillery, to stop incoming projectiles they must be ether moving at very fast speeds or large. This means slow moving aircraft or small ordinance is capable of breaking through the grand barrier, or they are as long as the shield isn't intensified at the particular spot the aircraft tries to enter... because then they just smash against it. This is not flawless; concentrated firepower is able to slip through even an intensified barrier, though it often fragments or is pushed off course. This protects the large formations from targeted fire but they are still exposed to the random chance of being hit by barrages. The smaller formations also have their own shields, wielded by a person known as the shield bearer, but these are extremely less powerful and act more like directional walls that might or might not stop incoming fire, they can only be pointed in one direction so it ether stops air attack or frontal fire from the ground but not both. The idea of massive shield is not used by other nations as they often do not protect enough troops to be worth powering, they also give off a massive "I'm over here" vibe to enemies that this is where the enemy is concentrated; there also extremely hard to power for long periods of time and are also prime targets for the enemy. These shields do protect large quantities of Imperial troops though, the armies are so large that they always say "I'm over here"; power is resolved by constructing power factories around the shield and even landing space vessels and using their reactors for power... in fact they built space vessels for this purpose. Finally the issue of them being massive targets is resolved through the use of secondary shields that protect the generator and a lot of protection... the army is already heavily concentrated in the area so what's a few more thousand soldiers and AA guns. Tactics The Imperial army uses a lot of standard tactics that are not worth mentioning. Since the highlight of the army is the line infantry we shall just look at some of their tactics. Tactic - Line battle There's no point to line infantry if you're not going to line battle; previously line infantry was used because it was easier to coordinate the large armies by dividing them into regiments. Now it is used for the same reason; to coordinate so many troops across the entire planet the entire army is seen as one solid line by the higher commanders, the line is then broken into segments and given a sub-commander who then breaks it up into more segments and assigns a sub-commander. Tactic - Fire by rank The powerful semi-automatic guns are prone to overheating and can take a minute or two to cool down (depending on the weather). To resolve this the formations cycle rank fire; the first two ranks let loose a volley of 12-16 rounds then the third and fourth ranks and the process repeats. Tactic - Light foot Soldiers can be dispersed and used as small mobile infantry regiments, these regiments then operate more like the standard infantry other nations use. The drawback is the shield bearer is now useless as his division has scattered into smaller squads; also the infantry is not as well trained for tactics outside of line battle. "And her ways are ways of gentleness, and all her paths are peace" Special Divisions and Regiments The Empire is extremely large and many other planets have developed sub-cultures; to reflect this the Imperial Army has special divisions. * The Valkyrie: Selected from special military training grounds the Valkyrie are all soldiers that excel in aerial and ground combat; the suit is the primary weapon, fitted with missiles for enemy aircraft, wrist rockets for ground vehicles and special swords to cleave through flesh and metal. Typically, but not solely, female these warriors are offered as children to the military to be specially trained as Valkyrie. They are expensive to train and equip though so the military only accepts the children of nobles (particularly rich families are expected to buy the suit, but then it is considered family property) many generals or commanders have been or are Valkyries as they have come to personify excellence and bravery. These warriors have become greatly revered and the armour is now used in many ceremonies; diplomatic communication is often done using the armour, both to honour the Valkyrie and to conceal the identity of the speaker to any Xenos they talk with. ' ' Category:Eternal Empire Category:Military Overview